The present invention relates to a vehicle headrest and particularly to a lighted headrest.
In today""s busy work environment, business persons frequently have to work when traveling and make frequent stops at various companies and locations, particularly traveling sales people. The automobile or other vehicle frequently becomes a portable office, complete with cellular telephones, fax machines, travel cases with samples, clipboards and other paraphernalia necessary to conduct business from such a mobile base. Some vehicle center consoles include writing surfaces to assist the vehicle operator in jotting down notes and information either from telephone conversations or when returning to the vehicle from a business visit.
At times, however, it is desirable to spend more serious time outlining information and the like, while the vehicle is at rest in a parking lot, at a restaurant or other temporary stopping area and, for such purpose, there have been provided a variety of seat-mounted desk-type attachments which can be strapped to a seat and employed by the vehicle operator as a portable desk. Such contraptions, however, are somewhat unsightly, bulky and difficult to use. Other desk-type armrest designs do not provide surfaces with sufficient working areas. U.S. Pat. No. 2,514,322 suggests the mounting of a lamp in the rear side of a vehicle seat near the top for providing lighting for the lap area of a passenger in mass transportation vehicles. Seats have been suggested which fold flat to form work tables as, for example, disclosed in Germany Patent DE 3603-891. There remains a need, however, for a system which is integrated into the original vehicle design to provide a vehicle operator with the convenience of a large writing surface which can be illuminated under low ambient light conditions.
The system of the present invention accommodates this need by providing a headrest mounted to a passenger side seat, which headrest includes a lamp assembly mounted therein for directing illumination rearwardly and downwardly from a rear surface in the headrest such that it illuminates the lap area of the seat located behind the passenger seat. The seat back can be folded forwardly to defme a work surface, and the headrest tilts rearwardly to direct illumination onto the work surface in the seat back. By providing illumination means in a tiltable headrest, rear seat illumination is provided with the seat back in a normal, upright position, and direct illumination for a work surface is provided with the seat back tilted forwardly and the headrest tilted rearwardly.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the headrest provides a recessed lamp assembly including an elongated light source and a reflector inclined at an angle to direct illumination downwardly. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the lamp assembly includes an elongated fluorescent lamp mounted in a housing recessed within the headrest. By providing a tiltable headrest with a lamp assembly which directs light downwardly, the headrest provides multiple functions for illuminating both the rear seating area as well as a work station in the back of the seat to which the headrest is mounted.
These and other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following description thereof together with reference to the accompanying drawings.